


It's Dark Inside

by angstbot



Series: SwanQueen Drabbles [30]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV), Swen, swan queen - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 13:24:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11291553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/angstbot/pseuds/angstbot
Summary: Prompt: the monster & SQ





	It's Dark Inside

The monster goes dormant for months at a time. But then one day it’s slithering up, its tentacles probing every vulnerability.

Regina puts on a careful face—makes Henry’s lunch, signs paperwork all day, makes dinner, tucks Henry in. And then there’s no one left to pretend for and it starts to consume her.

“Why are you sitting alone in the dark?”

“Get out,” the monster snarls, knowing Emma can defeat it.

“Not until you tell me what’s happening. It'll help clear your mind.” Sweet, stubborn, caring Emma. Emma who she lov-

 “My mind is perfectly clear,” the monster snaps, not through with her yet.

Emma comes fully into the room, wary but steady as she approaches. “You’ve done this every night this week. What’s going on?”

The monster trembles a bit, but insists, “Stalking doesn’t become you, Ms. Swan. Nor breaking and entering into my house.”

Emma snorts a tiny chuckle. “I’m checking on a friend. And I'm not leaving until you tell me what’s up.”

“Have a seat,” the monster sneers. “It'll be a while.”

And Emma _does_ , sitting next to her on the couch with a careful space between their bodies but not so much that Regina doesn’t feel just a bit warmer.

There’s a long silence, the monster is crawling up, tearing at her throat, trying to get out as Regina fights it back.

“How did we end up here, Emma?” it demands, finally. “In Storybrooke.”

Emma’s eyes search Regina’s face for a moment before she answers. “We’ve been over this. Rumplestiltskin made sure you were miserable and desperate enough to cast the curse to get him here.”

“No,” the monster insists immediately. “I decided. I did this to everyone. It’s my responsibility. I ruined your life.” The weight of it is unbearable.

“You’re responsible for your choice, yes. But you’ve changed, and we forgive you.” Emma turns her body toward her now, intimate, insistent.

Looking away doesn’t keep Regina from seeing Emma’s fingers twitching to reach out to her.

The monster stops in its tracks. “Don’t speak for everyone,” it snaps, desperate.

“Then I’ll speak for myself. I forgive you.”

“Why?”

“Because I know you know you can never make up for it, but you’re going to spend the rest of your life trying anyway. That’s what good people do.”

“You can’t believe that.”

“I can, and I do.” She does reach out now, hand palm up. The monster snarls. The moment balances on knifepoint.

Regina takes a deep breath, shoves the monster aside, and grips that hand. The warmth, and the care behind it, send the monster skittering back where it came from. She lets Emma pull her into a hug, the tension leaves her body. She can breathe again, feeling Emma warm and solid against her, the steady rhythms of her heartbeat and breathing as real and true as her murmurs of care and support. The darkness in Regina’s head is defeated.

It will be back, but for now Emma is her savior.

**Author's Note:**

> this riffs on Janeway's depression in the ST:Voyager episode "Night."


End file.
